Ted Strong's Motor Car eBook

Then the bank of the stream rose again, and the water
flowed through a ravine, into which the red car had
entered. It could not escape him, and Ted chuckled,
and examined his revolver, loosening it well in its
holster, for he had not forgotten the warning against
Checkers given him by Chief Desmond.

The ravine grew deeper as he advanced, and soon it
became tolerably dark at the bottom where the high
walls shut out the light. Suddenly his horse
stumbled, and, as Ted shot over its head, he heard
the twang of a broken wire that had been stretched
across the path.

He had fallen into a trap. As he struck the earth,
he was stunned for a moment, then a heavy weight was
upon him.

He twisted around and felt for his revolver, but it
had fallen from his holster, and he felt his arms
grasped and a thong passed around his wrists, and
then around his ankles.

The weight was lifted from him and he rolled over
on his back. Standing above him was the man whom
he knew as Checkers.

“Well, my lad, you delivered yourself like a
lamb to the slaughter,” said Checkers, with
a smile.

Ted could say nothing. He was too busy wondering
how easily he had fallen into the toils.

“You went up against a tough proposition when
yon tackled me,” continued the man. “It
would have been a good thing for you if you had never
run across me. You know too much to be left alive.
I shall see that you are properly taken care of.”

Checkers issued a shrill whistle.

“Come,” he said to Ted, “get to
your feet.”

Ted arose as three men came around an elbow of the
wall of the ravine.

“Take care of this boy,” said Checkers
to them. “And if he escapes—­”

He finished the sentence with a smile that made the
men wince.

CHAPTER XXIII.

StellaimitatesSantaClaus.

“Come on, fellow,” said one of the men,
jerking Ted along by hops.

“We’ll attend to him all right, boss,”
said another.

“He’ll get all that’s coming to
him,” said the third, with a grin that was almost
as diabolical as that of Checkers.

Around the elbow of the ravine wall, in a small cove
was a log cabin with a lean-to shed, under which was
sheltered the fatal red car which had lured him to
captivity.

The cabin was backed up against the wall of the ravine,
and was small and dirty as to interior. A fire
burned in a big stone fireplace at one end, filling
the room with a suffocating smudge.

The room was almost dark, but Ted, from the corner
into which he had been flung, was soon able to make
out that the men were cooking something over the glowing
embers, at the same time taking swigs from a black
bottle, and smoking reeking pipes of vile tobacco.

After the food was cooked they began to eat, but did
not offer Ted any of it, all the while making jokes
at his expense, and vaguely hinting at his fate.